Amitai is a Hebrew biblical name meaning 'my truth' or 'truthful.'
Amitai (אֲמִתַּי) is a Hebrew name meaning "my truth" or simply "truthful," built on the root *emet* (אֱמֶת), truth — one of the three pillars on which, according to the Talmud, the world stands. It appears in the Hebrew Bible in a single but resonant instance: Amittai of Gath-hepher is named as the father of the prophet Jonah (2 Kings 14:25). That slender reference gives the name a biblical pedigree without burdening it with the complicated legacy of a major figure.
Amitai is the father of the story, not the story itself — which leaves the name clean, available, and dignified. In Israel the name has been consistently used across generations, particularly in religious and traditional communities where biblical names carry devotional weight. It has a close cousin in the more familiar Amit (אָמִית), meaning "colleague" or "companion," but Amitai is the distinctly personal form — the *yod* suffix turning the abstract quality of truth into something intimate and claimed: not just "truth" but *my* truth.
That possessive element gives the name a philosophical depth unusual for a single word. Outside Israel, Amitai has traveled primarily within Jewish diaspora communities in the United States, Argentina, and France, where it registers as authentically Hebrew without requiring transliteration anxiety. It has also been borne by a number of notable Israeli academics and public figures — most prominently the sociologist Amitai Etzioni, who emigrated to the United States and became one of the founding theorists of communitarianism, lending the name an intellectual association. For contemporary parents seeking a Hebrew name that is ancient, meaningful, and not overused, Amitai offers a quiet kind of distinction.